José Villegas

José Gerardo “Jamaicón” Villegas Tavares (born June 20, 1934) is a Mexican football player, playing for the Mexican team in the 1958 and 1962 World Cup matches. ^[1]

Biography

Villegas was born in the neighborhood of “La Experiencia” and as many in his town he was a textile industry worker. In his infancy he was nicknamed “Jamaicón” because he cried too much (in some regions of Mexico, “Jamaicón” is considered a polite way to call someone a whiner). He began his soccer career playing for “Club Imperio” in 1949 and he was selected to the Jalisco State youth league in 1951. In the second round of his selection his team went to play for the National Championship final in Nuevo León State.

He was raised at the center of a typical Mexican Family, and as most other youth in his town, he would work in textiles, and then play in his spare time. His ability to play as a defensive player allowed him to play with one of the best Mexican Soccer teams : The “Chivas del Guadalajara”. ^[2] He won 8 championships with the Chivas league, assisted in 13 world cup play-offs and played in two World Cups. As a right defensive player he could not be passed by and faced world-renowned players to which he stopped from scoring. Perhaps the most memorable was Manuel Dos Santos “Garrincha” who played for the Botafogo team.

1962 World Cup

While Mexico prepared to play in the World Cup at Chile 1962 it was said that if “Jamaicón” had defeated “Garrincha” time and time again, surely there was enough defensive team for the World Cup. The Mexican federation of Futbol Soccer went on a tour of trial games with Ignacio Trelles at the head and their first stop was London, England. Trelles decided to line up “Piolín” Mota, a 2nd string goal keeper. Mota was quite concerned with the startup but Trelles told him he had nothing to worry about as “Jamaicón” would be there to defend the goal. That day the Mexican team lost by 8 goals against the British team and there was nothing that Villegas could do to stop them. As a reporter approached him to interview him on his disappointing performance, he said “he missed his mommy and days had gone by where he couldn’t eat “birria” and that life wasn’t worth it if he wasn’t in his town”.

Another interesting fact was that, even though he had defeated Garrincha in league games, he was so afraid of him during the 1962 World Cup he constantly asked where the attacker was.

Jamaicon Syndrome

A story also tells that one day he sneaked out of a dinner that was served to the Mexican team in Lisboa, prior to the Sweden World Cup of 1958. The trainer was made aware of this and found him in the Hotel garden, sitting under a tree hugging his legs and looking at the stars with melancholy. As he asked him if he had eaten dinner and everything was Ok, “Jamaicón” answered “How can I eat dinner if that was prepared for a bunch of presumptuous people? All I want are my “chalupas”, some “sopes” and not that trash that’s not even Mexican”.

Ever since, the phenomenon of Mexicans missing Mexico when they are out of the country is known as “The Jamaicón Syndrome”. ^[3]

References

1. FIFA Player Statistics: Jose Villegas, FIFA
2. Classic Club: C.D. Guadalajara, FIFA
3. Fonseca backs Sanchez for Mexico job, FIFA, October 6, 2006